#7 Being the Mother of Young Children

 I find people are very divided on the whether or not they enjoyed having young children.  (When I say young I mean babies to preschool age.)  Some people say they are so glad that stage of life is over, that their kids are more independent now and they would not want to go back that or have any more babies.  Other people seem to have really enjoyed that time of parenting and long for those days when their kids were cute and cuddly and as many have said the problems, while at times frustrating, were much easier to solve than teenage problems.  I definitely fall into the category of LOVING this baby/preschool stage.  Now I will admit this is the only stage of parenthood I have experienced as my oldest is not yet 4.  However even though I have nothing to else to compare it to I am really enjoying and savoring this time in mine and my children's lives.

So why do I love having young children so much?  Here are my top 5 reasons.

#1 I love all the hugs and kisses you get as well as the unconditional love.  If you know me well you know I am a very affectionate person.  My kids get hugs and kisses all the time, and they love it. They also love to give me hugs and kisses.  (Except Emmy, she's been ornery this past week and refuses to give mommy kisses, whenever I ask her for one she turns her head and says "Noo!"  She will however give her brother and dad kisses! Little stinker.)  Landon is very free with his hugs and kisses and never seems to run out of them.   I love that he will come up to me and give me a great big hug and kiss and say "I love you!" Then we get into his favorite I love you arguments where when I say back to him, "And I love you!"  He responds, "No, I love you!" and much to his delight we go back and forth until I tell him that we can love each other.  Sometimes he even beats me to the punch.  I've thrown him for a little bit of a loop lately though by saying I love you too or I love you more. Even though Emmy has been stingy with her kisses lately she is not stingy with her hugs or excitement to see me.  She lets me know I'm still her favorite lady around and I'm so glad that I am.

#2 Hearing "Mommy, you're my best friend".  It is so great to be greeted by a little who boy who runs up and gives me a great big hug and says "Mommy, you're my best friend!"  I savor those moments.  I seriously want to get this recorded so I can play it for him one day when I make him mad as a teenager and he tells me how awful I am.  Or even just play it for myself so I can remember how much he use to like me.  I remember a friend saying to me one day how much she loved the toddler/ preschool stage because your kids are your little buddies, they go everywhere with you and you just really get to enjoy a lot of special time with them.  I've thought a lot about this since she said that to me a couple of years ago and I have found myself very much enjoying having two little buddies that I get to spend my days with.  Yes I do need a break from time to time, but I do really enjoy my children and our outings (you know as long as they don't have a screaming fit at some point!)  I have become pretty good (not perfect) at doing my grocery shopping with both of them accompanying me.  (I do really enjoy when I get to go by myself though, but most of the time I take them with me.)  We go to story time at the library together.    I love our trips to the park and pool.  Some of my friends tell me they would go crazy being a stay at home mom, and I admit its not for everyone, but I really love that I get to spend so much time with my kids. I love that I get to get my kids up in the morning and we can usually do whatever we want to do.  I enjoy getting to snuggle with them, read them books and teach them new things throughout the day.  I remember looking at Landon when he was about 6-8 weeks old and I thought I can't imagine having to leave you for a good portion of the day.  I thought "I would miss so much."  I know some moms have to do it and I admire them for providing in that way for their families.  However, I'm really thankful that as of right now I do not have to do that and I can just enjoy my kids every day. I admit I do have moments that they are driving me crazy, but I've found that usually its nothing that an hour or so of PBS kids and a good afternoon nap can't fix!

#3 Having a lot of control over my kids lives.  I know this makes me sound like a control freak mom. I'm really not, and I do realize that I cannot control everything that happens in my kids lives.  What I mean by this is that this is the time in my kids lives that I will have the most control over how they spend their time and with whom they spend their time.  All to soon I will have to give a good portion of their days over to the public school system and a teacher will dictate how they spend 6-7 hours of their days.  We will have to work around school calendars for vacations and fun family outings.  Our evenings will be filled with homework and possibly sporting activities.  Also now I pretty much get to pick their  friends. I schedule their play dates and if I don't think a child is a good influence or maybe I think they're mean to my children I can make sure they don't spend a lot of time with those children.  Once they start school that choice will become theirs.  Yes I can give them advice and encourage them to avoid certain people who are not the best influences, however it will ultimately be their choice to chose who they spend time with during school.  Also. I can't just keep them away from mean kids. Landon as of now has the sweetest, outgoing nature.  He makes friends easily wherever he goes and no kid is ever a stranger to him.  He will play with anybody.  I love that about him, the innocence and accepting attitude he has.  However when I watch him making new friends at the park or wherever we might be that day I can't help but think someone is going to crush his sweet spirit one day by rejecting him.  That thought breaks my heart and I pray that he'll be able to bounce back from the rejection and not let it permanently wound or change his personality.  I also pray that he won't be the bully who crushes another kid's spirit.  It makes me so sad to think about all those things, so that why I like the amount of control I have over their lives.

 

#4  Problems are (fairly) simple to solve.  This kind of goes hand in hand with #3 but I'll give it a brief explanation.  With young children I've found that most of the problems I've encountered so far are pretty small on the grand scale of life.  They are hungry you feed them, they are whiny, you ignore them or find something to distract them, they are wet, you change their diaper.  They get hurt its usually physical, so you kiss it, put a bandaid on it or worse case take them to the doctor.  Yes there are some challenging phases but I feel the worst issues are yet to come.  I haven't had to listen to my child cry because some boy or girl has broken their heart.  I don't have to worry about what their doing when their out with their friends.   I get to tuck them into bed every night and I know they are home safe and sound until we get up in the morning.  No worrying where they are at, what they are doing or who they are with!  I will make this disclaimer though that the potty training problem was not easy.  I think we are pretty much now over that hurdle, but it has been a long 9 months and by far my least favorite part of parenting thus far. 

#5 All the cute things they say!  I told Landon the other day, "You are so smart Landon. Do you know you're smart? " He responded, "Yup, K-mart smart!"   My kids literally crack me up with all the funny things they say and do.  Landon obviously has more as Emmy is just learning to talk, but she definitely has her cute things she says as well. In fact pretty much everything she says is cute because she is just so stinkin cute!  Here's a list of some of my favorites:

• Landon was 13 months old standing up by our end table banging on some Bibles sitting there and  "preaching" in gibberish for about 20 minutes.  
• When we use to sing the BIBLE with Landon when he was little he would sing it, "I stand alone on the word of ME!"
• Landon has  photographic memory (like me) and at two years old we drive by a Dunkin Donuts and he says "I want Dunkin Coffee". We do not go into Dunkin Donuts ever, but he had remembered the commercial and recognized the sign.
• Landon use to say "Die, Die" instead of "Bye, Bye".  It was slightly disturbing to hear a one year old say that to you while smiling and waving....
• Whenever we sing the BIBLE during our family worship time Emmy yells "Bible" at the end. It was one of her first words, so precious! 
• When we drive down a hill or a big curve both kids yell "Wee" from the back seat.
• The other day Landon told me he wanted Daddy to come home so he could play a game with him.  I asked him what game he wanted to play, he responded, "step on him."   When Darin comes home he lays on the floor and plays with the kids and then they will usually end up jumping and climbing on him.  I didn't know until he told me that, that it was a game with the official name "step on dad".
• I love it when they start to learn to express themselves, like the other day we were at one of our summer outdoor church services and Emmy saw a slide on the other side of the park.  She pointed and said "slide" and I said yes, that's a slide.  She was trying  to tell me she wanted to leave the service and go to the slide, so she pointed again and said very determinedly , "slide, go, go slide".  So cute! 
• When both of the kids give kisses they say "munch" as they give the kiss.  So we say give me a munch! 
• Recently Landon was sitting on the floor doing a puzzle and he looked up and said," Mom, I'm trying to do some serious puzzles over here!" 

• Emmy loves to pretend to talk on the phone and will say Hi, then some gibberish and then bye.  Also at about 1 year old she learned to anticpate when I was about to say bye to whoever I was talking to, maybe my voice tone changed and every time right before I was about to say it she would say "Bye".

 
• One of my all time favorites is from Mother's Day this year. Landon told me he wanted me to make him breakfast in bed and that he wanted honeyed french toast with blueberries, sassafras tea, and beautiful red roses.  That was from a Barenstein Bears book we read, but he had the concept a little confused and when I told him that he was suppose to make me breakfast in bed for Mother's Day he said "No mom, you make me breakfast in bed." 

I feel so blessed to be in this stage of life.  I have always loved young children but I did use to wonder how I would handle dealing with them 24 hours a day every single day.  I worried it would get boring or that I wouldn't like them after they got out of the cute baby stage. I'm glad to report that I do like my kids very much and it is not boring!  They definitely keep things lively around here.  As much as I love this stage and am savoring these sweet times, I pray that I will be one of those few parents I meet who  really enjoy every stage of their kids lives.  However to my children I want to say whether or not I enjoy every stage as much as I enjoy this one, I know for certain that I will never love you, my sweet children any less.  I've come to love you more and more every single day of your lives. You bring an incredible amount of joy and laughter to our lives.  Most importantly you have taught me so much about the relationship we have with God.  Being a parent has helped me have a better understanding of how God sees us and how He feels about us.   You are without a doubt some of the good and perfect gifts He has given me and I thank God every day for each of you!